Like many 90s kids, Jurassic Park is one of my favorite stories. It only now occurs to me that for all the ethical dilemmas presented in that tale, none revolve around buying and claiming ownership of an island, which seems a very American oversight. Tomi Oyemakinde's new sci-fi horror adventure novel We Are Hunted is being widely advertised as Jurassic Park meets White Lotus, which is part of the reason I requested it on NetGalley (the other is that phenomenal cover). There are no dinosaurs here, but a host of hostile, dangerous, and fantastic wildlife that will fulfill your appetite for claws and teeth. Where the novel differs most from the elements it's subverting and remixing is in its focus on the indigenous people of Darlenia, the island setting for our blood bath.
The three men of the Fatona family embark on a journey to a highly secretive new resort. They've been invited as shareholders of Jenkins & Children, a corporation run by a famous venture capitalist who is best described as Jurassic Park's John Hammond combined with Elon Musk. Femi is our narrator, a young hip-hop musician full of youthful inflexibility. He has a passion for authenticity and refuses to sacrifice his self-expression for any reason. Femi is a lovable hero, a willful, smart teenage boy. He’s a deeply compassionate character but spends most of the story masking his youthful innocence and naivety with bluster and gumption. His father is trying to teach him the value of compromise, a lesson he just won’t hear. It’s not just his dad Femi struggles with. Older brother Dapo and he have had a strained relationship following an accident that left Dapo injured, an accident Femi feels responsible for. The Fatona boys' vacation with their father is partly an attempt by their mother to bridge these divides.
On the way to Darlenia, we meet Deja, an old flame that notably left Femi on read months ago. She also happens to be vacationing at the same resort. Femi is a hopeless romantic with this girl and is in over his head. We are also introduced to Mui, a little girl who is every bit the heart of this novel. Mui carries with her an imaginary friend, Ken that she insists be given the same respect as any other living person. Mui’s newfound friendship with Femi gives us a nice glimpse into Femi’s heart when he’s at his most guarded early in the novel.
The book takes its time cooking with these relationship dynamics but it never feels lagging and there's an underlying sense of momentum as Femi finds himself helping Valoisa, a Darlenian living on the island with her sister, with a problem he doesn't really understand. Through this, readers can learn a bit more about Darlenian wildlife and history and Femi learns that celebrity capitalist Richard Jenkins may be a fraud. For the horror readers, the patience is worth it, as there’s just no substitute for good setup. By the time things start unraveling, the novel is a gruesome bloodbath. Very few people make it out of this thing alive and even fewer make it out in one piece. Things start small, a random bite here or there. This slow escalation swan dives into Hell when a swarm of strange birds called "golden raptors" begins eating the tourists. It isn’t just the birds, but all animals, which I haven’t mentioned, are wonderfully described in iridescent colors that would feel at home in any 1960s kaiju movie. The beasts attack anyone and everyone. Whether it be glass dragons, land eels, or Darlenian revolutionaries, Femi and his family have no shortage of mortal threats to face as they try to escape the resort. All this is to say, don’t get too attached.
The consistency of voice in this novel is unwavering. Sticking with Femi's close first person, present-tense POV, every moment is filled with youthful immediacy. Complex emotional situations are put into words that feel intimate and relatable. What impressed me most with this novel was how it kept throwing off my expectations. Knowing this covered familiar pop culture ground as a critique of colonial capitalism, a lot of ideas jumped to mind about exactly how this thing was going to go. Whatever ideas I had, I was delighted to find it went somewhere else every time. We Are Hunted isn't just entertainment, it wrestles with criticisms of colonization and ideas about revenge. It holds a mirror up to contemporary societies’ growing appetite for violence, that so often can feel righteous and justified. Oyemakinde knows some readers will want blood as justice and baits them with it. For all the carnage, the Fatona boys are Christians and resolute that killing isn’t justice. The narrative concludes, making its point satisfactorily. Don't worry, there’s plenty of comeuppance. As an added bonus, I urge you to keep reading after the acknowledgments.
This is the kind of book I would have devoured in a single sitting when I was younger. I was surprised to see such a bloody tome about survival landing in the YA section. Things have changed since I was young. I'm definitely picking up a copy of this for my nieces and strongly encourage you to buy a copy for any horror-minded, thrill-seeking teens, but also yourself because I had a blast reading this. What I loved most about this book is the way it took the familiar and made it something completely new and made me think about old stories in a fresh light. Pick We Are Hunted up on US shelves on Tuesday, September 17. If you’re one of my readers located in the UK (pretty much you, Colin), it’s out now.
I received an advance reading copy free in exchange for honest feedback and am leaving this review voluntarily. Below are links to purchase WE ARE HUNTED from two of my favorite St. Louis bookstores which Nocturne Books and Media is not affiliated with but firmly believes deserve your support. As of this writing, it appears The Novel Neighbor currently has 3 copies on their shelves!
Comments